


In the Warmth of the Setting Sun

by thereyoflight



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Dorks in Love, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Heartbreak, Hope, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Redemption, Soft Ben Solo, Space Idiots In Love, The Rise of Skywalker Never Happened, i love them your honor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26086123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereyoflight/pseuds/thereyoflight
Summary: Weeks after the heartbreaking events in the throne room, the force bond connects. Ben and Rey have a much needed conversation. Post-TLJ.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 9
Kudos: 72





	In the Warmth of the Setting Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rednblackdiamonds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rednblackdiamonds/gifts).



> To Katy, who provided this prompt and continues to be a gift of a friend time and time again ❤️

Ben froze as he felt his connection with Rey soar toward him. It gave no word of warning, no indication to prepare himself, and he closed his eyes as it opened. He was immediately aware of her presence like a light in the darkness, and he turned toward her.

Ben was taken aback to see her sitting down on a box of ship cargo, her leg splayed in front of her comfortably and a tin can of a drink clutched in her hand. She looked entirely different than when he’d seen her last. Her hair cascaded down her shoulders, and half of it was pulled away from her face. She wore brown trousers that cut off at her calf, worn brown boots, and a shirt that he recognized immediately—black and hovering over her frame loosely—because it was once his own. It took his breath away to see her in it. She must have found it in a compartment on the Falcon, stored away in the days he used to fly with his father, and had taken it for herself.

 _Such a scavenger_ , he thought. 

Memories rose up from the depths of his mind at the sight of her dark tunic, old images of his father that left his throat constricting, but he shoved them away. From the look in Rey’s eyes, gazing towards invisible silhouettes, he knew she wasn’t alone. Then he heard something he’d never heard from her before, a bubbling shudder of sound that left him stunned—her laugh.

Just when he’d thought he couldn’t be more in awe of her, she had a way of surprising him. 

Her laugh shot through him like a current of unbridling warmth, and he stood there for a moment in stunned bafflement. He had seen her smile before, full of illuminating joy and beauty, but seeing it coupled with her laugh struck him in an entirely different way. He thought inexplicably of the glimpses he’d seen of her as a child on Jakku, her freckled skin laboring in the heat of the sun just to survive to see another day, and the overwhelming loneliness that accompanied it. Had that girl—that abandoned, broken girl—ever thought she could ever laugh this way? So openly and genuinely, so fearlessly? 

Rey’s eyes found his, glazed over in a look he couldn’t read. For a moment, he thought she would turn away from him and continue her conversation with whoever sat with her, probably the boy she called Finn or the arrogant pilot. Instead, to his surprise, she excused herself and stood. She brushed past him, and he knew to follow her. He wasn’t sure how far they walked, too aware of the way shadows and sunlight caught across her skin, across the scarred flesh on her upper right arm, to notice. 

She could’ve walked him towards the edge of the world, and he still would have followed.

+

Rey inhaled the fresh scent of earth and mist in the air as she approached the lake. There were long stretches of water across the entire planet she and the Resistance were on, and she usually found herself there in moments of reflection or meditation. It always felt like a breath of fresh air to see a place where life thrived so wonderfully instead of the barren wasteland that had been Jakku. When everything was over, she hoped she could spend the rest of her days on a bright, green planet like this one. 

She wondered what Ben would think of that.

She stopped at the edge of the water, but she didn’t meet his eyes. She leaned down and took hold of a rock in the dirt, gripping it firmly in her hand before tossing it toward the water and relishing in the way it skipped across the surface before disappearing beneath the depths. “Here to ask for my hand again?” she asked, eyes squinted in the setting sun. 

She noticed the way his dark figure flinched in her peripheral vision, and she immediately regretted the words. To her relief, he ignored the comment. “I’ve never heard you laugh before,” he said. “It’s… beautiful.”

Rey turned her gaze to his in surprise, a hint of a smile along her lips. He smiled back at her, and she didn’t push away the warmth that flooded her at the sight. She had never seen him smile before, and it felt like a crime that she hadn’t. His cheeks and eyes crinkled to accommodate the lovely, crooked grin that overtook his expression. Her heart twinged painfully at the realization that it was probably the first time he had smiled in a long time. Ben seemed to want to control his smile underneath her gaze and pulled back against it, leaving his lips threatening to twinge up into another beam.

She sensed thoughts and feelings from his side of the bond, rushing toward her before cascading back down as quickly as it had come. It happened rarely, to hear thoughts so clearly between the two of them, but when it did happen, it was always jarring. She rarely heard much since his thoughts always seemed too jumbled together except for random words that were at the forefront of his mind like _TIE_ and _system_ and mostly, _Rey_. This time, she heard her name again, clear as day, ricocheting through his mind, and something else—a wandering thought of what his lips would feel like against her own. She blushed and tore her eyes away from him. 

“You should smile more,” she said. “It suits you.”

“Some would say it’s not a fitting look for the Supreme Leader,” he responded. 

“Those _some_ have not seen it.”

A silence settled between them. It reminded her of the unnerving calm before a storm, before the world broke open entirely. They had reached the edge once again, the one that lingered between their wrenched hearts and everything they couldn’t be. 

He seemed to sense it, and in an attempt to keep the inevitable conversation at bay, he spoke. “What do you see?” 

Rey still hadn’t looked at him, and she turned her attention from the ground to the lake before her. “Water,” she said. “A lot of green. A setting sun.”

There was an aching silence between them. Rey shifted her eyes to the ground beneath her feet where the edge of the water met land, not wanting to meet his gaze. She could feel the multitude of emotions between them rising to the surface—heartbreak, anger, and between it all, a longing that ran as deep as the galaxy itself. 

“You didn’t give me another choice,” she said suddenly. “Do you know how bad that hurt me?”

“Don’t you think I know that now?”

She refused to meet his gaze and, instead, closed her eyes against the setting sun’s glare. She focused on the way it felt against her skin, all warmth without the harshness she had once felt on Jakku, to keep herself from bursting into tears. She didn’t realize he had stepped closer to her until his fingers brushed against her scar. She sucked in a breath in surprise and stepped back from him, eyes shooting open to look at him. 

His eyes were wide. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean—.”

“It’s okay,” she said. 

His touch returned to her arm, but she had been expecting it. She searched his eyes, warm and brown, as they grazed over her scar. “Did you feel what I felt when you got this?” he whispered.

Rey would never forget. She had felt his anger and excitement in the throne room when they fought beside each other as one, but it was nothing compared to what had burst forth when she had been wounded. She had felt it as clearly as if they were one and the same—something long buried and repressed had broken open inside him, filling him with a newfound flare of ferocity. 

All at the sight of her getting a small cut. 

“Yes,” she breathed.

She knew she could turn away from him now, to escape back into her day until the bond subsided once again. Perhaps it was what she should do. But she didn’t want to go. 

His hand came up to cup her cheek, and she closed her eyes against it. She could see the glare of the sun behind her eyelids, illuminating them both in sunlight. Her hand closed around his wrist gently. She pushed back the tears that threatened. “I wanted you to come back with me,” she whispered.

“I know.”

She remembered what he had thought the day everything had fallen apart, in the darkness of the night—words that had found her in a slumber, words that demanded to be heard and remembered. _Forgive me._ She couldn’t imagine a life where she wouldn’t be able to forgive him. Despite everything, she couldn’t deny how she felt and she knew he couldn’t either. 

Before she could say anything, she felt his lips brush against her cheekbone. It was light, and it was filled to the brim with aching concern. It was enough to send tears spilling down her cheeks.

It was more than enough to get her head to turn toward his, her lips searching for his. 

+

The sun on his skin reminded him of her. A touch of warmth that had found him in a cold, dark night. Something that reminded him that there was still hope for him. 

Ben’s lips ghosted across her cheekbone, and he felt something shiver within her in response. He felt the slickness of tears on his hand and he grazed his thumb over it. It pained him to know that this closeness hurt her as it hurt him, that it was something they both longed for that they knew they couldn’t have. 

_Someday_ , he thought, _we’ll be together._

Rey’s lips brushed along his cheek, and just as he leaned away, her mouth closed over his. He froze in surprise. He felt her body close to him as she leaned into him, and he braced his other hand on her hip to steady her. The press of the kiss was unlike anything he’d ever dreamed of; it was more than what he could have ever imagined. It seemed to break open something new in the bond that they shared, a surging mixture of all the beautiful, longing feelings and thoughts they shared of each other. 

It was confusion and heartache, but most of all, it was overflowing hope and compassion and love. It settled over him with a warmth he’d never quite known, and beneath his closed eyelids, he felt the prickling of tears. Is this truly how she felt about him?

Ben pulled away from her, and he found himself laughing. It felt foreign coming out of him, and he realized he couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed. Rey’s eyes opened to meet his, and in the midst of her fallen tears, she was smiling, too. He sensed the recognition that coursed through her at the sound of his laugh, the sound she so easily processed as _beautiful_ , and he was stunned that she’d think the same way of him that he thought of her. 

“What?” she asked, stifling a laugh. 

“I wasn’t expecting that.”

“What were you expecting?”

“A punch to the face, maybe.”

She snorted. “I’d be lying if I said you didn’t deserve it.”

“That’s fair.”

Her eyes faded from their warmth, replaced with the same look he’d seen in the throne room. She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his. “Tell me this is forever,” she whispered. “Tell me we will find a way.” 

He wanted to believe the words himself. He could only hope the Force had such plans for them. He closed his eyes, and he felt their bond slipping away once again. “This is forever,” he breathed. “We’ll find a way.”

The final awareness he had was of Rey’s grip on his wrist, the warmth of her body close to his, and the touch of his skin against hers before the bond disconnected.

+

Rey found her way back to Poe and Finn. They seemed to have their own enlightening conversation about something, but they stopped short at her entrance. She sat back down where she had before.

Finn eyed her suspiciously. “Is everything okay?”

She smiled. “Perfect.”

For the first time in a long time, it wasn’t a lie. 

Poe continued the conversation he was having with Finn, filling Rey in on the details, but she wasn’t really paying attention. She was too caught up in what had happened. The ghosting press of Ben’s lips against hers remained like a promise, like a reminder that the light she’d sensed in him long ago still remained. A light he’d kept lit for years upon years of heartache. A light she blew on to keep alight. A light that would one day burst open into a flame, into a coursing fire, of hope and redemption. 

She believed in the hope of that small flame inside of him, and she would continue to until he believed it for himself, too. 


End file.
